As Abbas at UN urges speedy, negotiated resolution of conflict, Hamas and Islamic Jihad exhort West Bank brethren to take up arms

While Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the UN Thursday urged intensive talks to attain a permanent peace accord within nine months, Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials exhorted Palestinians in the West Bank to declare a Third Intifada against Israel.

“The intifada needs to break out anew at every point of conflict,” Ahmad al-Medlal, a senior Islamic Jihad official, said at a conference in the Gaza Strip’s Jabaliya refugee camp. “Resistance is the best response to the occupation’s crimes against the al-Aqsa Mosque.” Hundreds of Gazans reportedly rallied at the camp in support of the demand, following a series of clashes between Palestinian stone throwers and Israeli security authorities around the al-Aqsa Mosque atop the Temple Mount in recent days.

Abu Obeida, the spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, also called on Palestinians in the West Bank to restart violence against Israel. His statement came days after senior Hamas politburo member Moussa Abu Marzouk said a Third Intifada was imminent, pointing at the killings of two IDF soldiers last week as a sign of its approach.

The remarks from the Gaza-based terrorist groups came as Abbas called for an immediate negotiated resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, warning that the window for peace was getting narrower each day.

Meanwhile, approximately 150 Palestinians threw Molotov cocktails and rocks at IDF soldiers in a village outside Ramallah, Ynet reported. The soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the rioters.

The IDF spokesperson said that three Palestinians were injured in the clashes and were treated by paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent.

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